HUGH JACKMAN as Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

HUGH JACKMAN as Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe

OscarAE winner RUSSELL CROWE as Javert in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

OscarAE winner RUSSELL CROWE as Javert in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around

ANNE HATHAWAY as Fantine in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

ANNE HATHAWAY as Fantine in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and

AMANDA SEYFRIED as Cosette and EDDIE REDMAYNE as Marius in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Seyfried, Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

AMANDA SEYFRIED as Cosette and EDDIE REDMAYNE as Marius in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21

'Les Misérables' ", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

'Les Misérables' ", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office

SAMANTHA BARKS as Éponine in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

SAMANTHA BARKS as Éponine in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and

HUGH JACKMAN as Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Jackman, OscarAE winner Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

HUGH JACKMAN as Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe

OscarAE winner RUSSELL CROWE as Javert in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around the globe and still breaking box-office records everywhere in its 27th year. Helmed by "The King's Speech's" Academy AwardAE-winning director, Tom Hooper, the Working Title/Cameron Mackintosh production stars Hugh Jackman, Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

OscarAE winner RUSSELL CROWE as Javert in "Les Misérables", the motion-picture adaptation of the beloved global stage sensation seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages around

(L-r) DEAN OâÄôGORMAN as Fili, AIDAN TURNER as Kili, Mark Hadlow as Dori, Jed Brophy as Nori and WILLIAM KIRCHER as Bifur in New Line CinemaâÄôs and MGM's fantasy adventure âÄúTHE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY,âÄù a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

(L-r) DEAN OâÄôGORMAN as Fili, AIDAN TURNER as Kili, Mark Hadlow as Dori, Jed Brophy as Nori and WILLIAM KIRCHER as Bifur in New Line CinemaâÄôs and MGM's fantasy adventure âÄúTHE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED

MARTIN FREEMAN as Bilbo Baggins in New Line CinemaâÄôs and MGM's fantasy adventure âÄúTHE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY,âÄù a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

MARTIN FREEMAN as Bilbo Baggins in New Line CinemaâÄôs and MGM's fantasy adventure âÄúTHE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY,âÄù a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Photo: James Fisher, Photographer

Image 20 of 21

'WUTHERING HEIGHTS' ,âÄù a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

'WUTHERING HEIGHTS' ,âÄù a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

Photo: Agatha Nitecka

Image 21 of 21

Reel déjà vu: Hollywood mining classic novels

1 / 21

Back to Gallery

For as long as we've flocked to watch moving pictures in the dark, filmmakers have found the light of inspiration in the pages of classic books.

"In 1895, movies were just an amusement, vaudeville entertainment," says Timothy Corrigan, film and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania. "But by 1908, movies suddenly started to change. They came under scrutiny from church groups and politicians, who felt they were dangerous to immigrants, women and children. So filmmakers added symphonic scores and turned to classic novels to give their work cultural legitimacy."

Hollywood, always desperate for a good story, never got out of the habit. In coming months, literary adaptations are poised to lead the Oscar race, promising period costumes, A-list stars and hairy dwarves. For studio, cast and crew, it's a chance to be associated with a prestigious production. And since the best literary adaptations reflect the present, it's also a chance for an old story to say something new.

"Wuthering Heights," "Anna Karenina," "Les Misérables" and "The Hobbit" will hit theaters this fall. Release of the "The Great Gatsby" has been pushed to next year, and an opening date for "Great Expectations" has not been announced. Some have been made into movies many times over, so filmmakers are venturing onto well-trod ground, filled with nostalgic favorites - Laurence Olivier's brooding Heathcliff - and hard-to-forget flops.

Most Popular

For example, will Baz Luhrmann's splashy 3-D "Gatsby," withLeonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, trump the lackluster 1974 version with Robert Redford?

"Luhrmann has a very international cast," says Karen Fang, associate professor of film and literature at the University of Houston. "He's got Amitabh Bachchan in the film, the biggest star in India. Clearly he's trying for a global, prestige picture."

But another film expert says F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925book simply doesn't translate well to film.

" 'Gatsby' is a short book," notes Charles Dove, who teaches film at Rice University. "It's elliptical and full of stream-of-consciousness, and all that gets lost."

Worse, everyone wants "Gatsby" to be a love story, and it isn't, Dove says.

"Daisy doesn't really love Gatsby. He's projected all this stuff onto her. And then there's the problem of Nick Carroway's first-person narration. He just becomes this weird guy hanging around in the films."

Dove is also tepid about Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," despite the director's state-of-the-art visual effects and his previous success adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

" 'The Hobbit' is a slim book, but the movie is going to be in three parts," Dove notes. "It's overkill."

The novels of the 1800s stand a better chance of adaptation, he says, because they're already so visual and external.

Film draws much of its technique from 19th-century novels anyway. Pioneering director D.W. Griffith, best known for 1915's "Birth of a Nation," famously and deliberately mined Charles Dickens' literary strengths - character close-ups, cross cutting between different scenes - and brought them to the big screen.

Nineteeth-century novels, with their realism and complex characters, also offer a stability that's increasingly hard to find in the movies and in life, Corrigan says. The real flag-wavers of our time, such as Quentin Tarantino, undo all that stability, he adds.

Fang expects "Les Misérables" - a film of the Broadway musical spun from Victor Hugo's book - will do well because of the cast, which includes Hugh Jackman (as ex-con/politician Valjean), Russell Crowe (as prison guard/policeman Javert) and Anne Hathaway (as the tragic Fantine).

"Part of the appeal is getting to see the big stars sing," she says. "You could also argue that 'Glee' has brought back a youthful enthusiasm for the musical."

Film versions of "Anna Karenina," Leo Tolstoy's epic romance set against the fishbowl of Russian high society, always draw interest because the character has such a famously tragic persona, Corrigan and Dove say.

Dove iscuriousto see how much of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" will make it on screen. In the 1939 William Wyler version, with Olivier and Merle Oberon, Wyler shot only the first half of the book.

"The second half of the book is when Heathcliff becomes demonic instead of tortured; he becomes the evil landlord."

Dove wonders about the conclusion to "Great Expectations" as well.

"It has been filmed many, many times," says the film professor, who likes the version David Lean directed in 1946, as well as Alfonso Cuarón's 1998 version, starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow in a contemporary setting. "But Dickens had two different endings. At the end of the happy version, Pip goes off with Estella. In the unhappy version, they do not get together. Almost all the films use the happy ending."

Of course, what cinephiles often hope for is an adaptation that lifts a familiar story into new territory.

But perhaps the most compelling question is: Why these particular adaptations now?

Maybe because they speak to the 99 percent.

"Anna Karenina" and "Les Misérables" are books about social revolution, Fang notes. The others are about individuals who find success in societies that are initially positioned against them.

"I guess it makes sense in a time of unemployment and economic instability, when there's resentment from people who are suffering and a huge divide between rich and poor, that these narratives would appeal," she says.